


The Wire Connecting Our Hearts

by oldamongdreams



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Asexual Character, Drabble, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 05:10:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldamongdreams/pseuds/oldamongdreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Stacker couldn’t remember what he had done with his life before the military, before Jagers and Kaiju attacks and a world set firmly on his shoulders. Before he had adopted a perfect little girl and seen her grow into the most competent fighter he knew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wire Connecting Our Hearts

Sometimes Stacker couldn’t remember what he had done with his life before the military, before Jagers and Kaiju attacks and a world set firmly on his shoulders. Before he had adopted a perfect little girl and seen her grow into the most competent fighter he knew.

The war against the Kaiju had been over for nearly a year, a year that had been spent tying up loose ends and releasing the members of his team and determinedly ignoring doctors who were insistent on learning how long he had left. Stacker hadn’t expected to live out the end of the war, but he had, and he would bully his way through as many more days as he could. No one deserved to know their own expiration date.

Raleigh had moved to San Francisco to help with the cleanup efforts. Chuck, to Hong Kong. He had kicked Mako out of the Shatterdome himself, knowing she would be torn between following her co-pilot or staying with him. He didn’t allow her that choice, and she sent him postcards from San Francisco once a week.  

She had gotten a tattoo, last time he visited, of a red shoe on her left arm. He had smiled, but looked away when then needle went in. Stacker understood many things, but the need to make invisible scars visible was not one of them. He had the marks from his suit imbedded in his flesh, the kind of wound that comes from using your body and brain to force a Jager into action. He had his share of invisible scars too, but he preferred to keep them that way.

Herc had stayed in the Dome, and it had taken Stacker longer than he would ever admit to understand why.

It had taken six months of Herc always in the background, moving where he was needed without being asked, before Stacker had confronted him.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the help, Hansen, but why the hell are you still here?”

Herc had looked startled. “You need the help. It’s not like I have anything else to do.” He paused, looking out over the section of the Shatterdome below him. “I don’t remember who I was, before all this,” he admitted quietly.

Stacker placed a hand on the other man’s shoulder and nodded. “You look like you need a drink.”

“Thank you, Marshal. I think I do.”

Stacker shook his head and smiled at the other man. “Stacker. I’m not your Marshal here, Hansen.”

“Not Hansen, then. Herc.”

They finished every night that week together, sharing stories over drinks and cards, just two men whose place in the world had become redundant with the loss of a viable threat.

It was Herc who leaned closer, near a month later, and pressed his lips to Stacker’s.

It was Stacker who pulled back, wrapped an arm around Herc, and admitted “I’ve never been a fan of kissing. But if you’d like to tell me about that project you mentioned earlier—“

Herc smiled easily, and did just that. 

**Author's Note:**

> Just a drabble that wouldn't leave my head. This is my favorite Pacific Rim ship, and there isn't nearly enough fic for it. The title is from "A Kiss to Send Us Off" by Incubus. You can find me on tumblr at oldamongdreams.tumblr.com.


End file.
